Founded in 1970 as a division of Legg Mason, The Washington Service (WS) began as a provider of legislative and policy analysis to institutional investors. In response to customer demand, WS specialized in gathering information from the myriad of available federal, state, and local agency sources, with a specific focus on the SEC.
At the request of Peter Lynch, then manager of Fidelity’s Magellan Fund, WS started capturing the insider trading data disseminated by the SEC. By this time, the firm had established its reputation as a top-tier provider of SEC documents and data. Peter Lynch’s request launched the firm’s insider trading business, which continues to be a main line of business.
Also in the 1980s Bloomberg, Dow Jones, and Thomson Reuters (now known as Refinitiv) selected WS to be the provider of insider trading news on their financial information platforms, relationships which continue to the present. WS also offers direct subscription value-added insider trading services on these financial information platforms, in addition to the basic insider trading news available to all subscribers.
In 1989, the firm’s management team purchased the business from Legg Mason and began its operation as an independent organization, which continues to this day. In the 1990s, the firm launched its internet based EZ-Insider and EZ-CorpDox offerings. In 1996, the SEC initiated EDGAR, an electronic public company filings feed. Soon after EDGAR’s debut WS became a Tier 1 recipient of the feed directly from the SEC, a role it currently maintains.
Today, WS is best known as the premier provider of insider trading data and analytics to securities professionals. The firm also offers a suite of custom services, research, and APIs focused on the SEC’s EDGAR feed.